Taping Techniques: Principles and Practice.

MacDonald R. Newton, MA 02158-1626, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998, System Requirements: 486DX66, 8 MB RAM (13-25 MB hard disk space for general installation), Microsoft Windows 3.11 or Windows '95. $175.

Educating the patient is an essential part of most successful physical therapy plans of care. When a patient is provided with a personalized handout, learning is often enhanced. If producing a patient handout can be made simple, then a therapist is more likely to use this educational tool. This software collection, based on the book Taping Techniques by Rose MacDonald and compatible with PhysioTools, offers an easy, highly flexible means of producing a high-quality personal client handout in seconds.

This software package was evaluated for this review using an IBM-compatible PC with a Pentium processor, Windows '95, and 32 RAM.

The handbook included with the software is readable and comprehensive. The first part of the manual has an overview of all pictures for quick reference (QuickPic pages) and pictures with legends for complete reference (TextRef pages). The techniques are listed anatomically in a proximal to distal direction. The text is designed with the patient or client in mind, using simple everyday language when possible and reducing the use of medical terms. The second part of the handbook is comprised mostly of a user's guide -- covering installation, registration, and general reference -- and a tutorial.

Installation of this program took approximately 5 minutes (not including time spent on registration). Producing a client handout took about 2 minutes and could be printed in color and in different languages. The size of the graphics varied depending on the number of items (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, or 10) on each page; the 1- to 4-item printouts were the easiest to read. The header text can be customized to include your own logo on each printout.

The features that I found especially useful include the ability to flip pictures to left or right side, make text amendments, add pictures to the program using a scanner, and edit pictures. It is important to be able to change the text in order to customize techniques for patients and to improve or update techniques. This program is designed to allow 3 text options: standard, house (for clinic protocols), and provider (allows each therapist using the program to individualize text). Adding pictures to this program is simple and necessary because the taping techniques are not very comprehensive. For example, there are no examples of scapular or McConnell patellar taping techniques.

I found a few weaknesses with this program. The text contains few cautions, such as how to prepare the skin for taping, and contraindications. It appears that this program was originally designed for personalized exercise instruction and was subsequently adapted for teaching taping techniques. Some of the exercise terminology is retained and is cumbersome to edit. For example, the default header text is "Personal Exercise Program" instead of "Personal Taping Technique," with an option to print out a training diary (eg, sets, reps, weight).

My main concern with this program is its premise that most taping techniques can be self-applied. I believe it is unrealistic to expect anyone other than a qualified practitioner to correctly and safely apply these techniques. Because of the skill level necessary, the usefulness (not to mention the appropriateness) of the handouts is limited.

Overall, I found this program to have great graphics, simple instructions, and enough flexibility to produce high-quality personalized handouts relatively quickly. This program should be considered for use primarily in academic and teaching applications rather than in routine physical therapy practice. Coaches, athletic trainers, and especially students should find this program very useful.

Gerry Van Dyke, PT, SCS, ATC California Orthopedics and Sports Therapy Rehabilitation Services Inc Aptos, Calif

Mr Van Dyke is the owner of California Orthopedic and Sports Therapy (COAST) Rehabilitation Services Inc, which provides physical therapy and athletic training services to professional, collegiate, and high school athletes.